When athletes prepare for the upcoming season, they go through an intense period of physical conditioning. Even musicians and chess players will spend time in training under experts who can guide them to superior performance in their chosen fields.

For writers, there is The Iowa Screenwriter’s Boot Camp. It’s not a retreat or a sabbatical — it’s a boot camp.

This spring break, writers throughout the region will have the opportunity to go through this intensive training process with screenwriter Ron Peterson in Des Moines. Peterson takes aspiring screenwriters and teaches them everything they need to know to make their scripts marketable for the big screen.

The event was founded by former ISU student and University of Northern Iowa graduate Shirley Long, a central figure in the Iowa film industry and co-founder of the Iowa Motion Picture Association.

Long has made it her mission in life to bring film to Iowa and Iowans to Hollywood.

“In the past 10 years, I’ve been involved in putting on 90 seminars,” Long said. “We work on writing, directing, acting, editing, camera work and set etiquette.”

Long is also co-founder of the Iowa Scriptwriter’s Alliance, an organization for writers and actors of screen and stage to gather and help develop their scripts.

“The organization does live readings of movie scripts and stage plays,” she said. “It’s very helpful to the writer to see their work read by actors in front of an audience. Afterwards the audience, which is usually made up of other writers, give feedback.”

Long first brought Peterson to Iowa in May, 1994. The seminar was popular, and Peterson has been requested 12 times since for his unique insight into the screenwriting process.

Peterson has instructed hundreds of students during the last 18 years, many of whom have been able to sign with agents and managers, have their work read and get jobs in the industry on such shows as “The X-Files,” “Seinfeld” and “Saturday Night Live.”

His method is designed to be a concentrated week for writers to do nothing but work on their projects.

“Boot camp lasts seven days,” Long said. “We don’t bring people in and say ‘write your movie.’ The first two days, Ron teaches everything from A to Z all day, then we set up one-on-one appointments for Monday. We give those people assignments, and while they’re off writing, we have a steady stream of meetings.”

Michael Dahlstrom, senior in journalism and mass communication, took the boot camp last March with positive results.

“Michael took the boot camp, and we’ve been working with him ever since,” Long said. “He spent a solid week in the boot camp, and by January his project was ready to go. It’s out there with two L.A. producers and one animated feature producer who worked on ‘Star Trek V.'”

Any writer wishing to participate in this year’s boot camp can call (515) 964-4599 for further information.